US National Interagency Fire Center Wildfire Update for the Week Ending September 22nd

The US National Interagency Fire Center (NIFC) is reporting that as of Friday, September 22nd, 53 large wildfires have burned 440,958 acres in 11 states. Three new large new wildfires were reported on Thursday: 2 in Mississippi and 1 in Colorado.

Approximately 8,300 wildland firefighters and support personnel are assigned to incidents across the nation. This includes 150 crews, 362 engines, 75 helicopters, and 11 incident management teams. The National Preparedness Level remains at a 3 out of 5.

The number of new large fires or emergency responses as of September 22nd was 3. The number of active large fires stands at 53 (not including individual fires within complexes). There are currently 440,958 acres actively involved fires. The total number of wildfires contained stands at 6.

States currently reporting large fires are Oregon with 12; Washington with 7; Idaho with 4; Colorado and Montana with 3 each; Louisiana and Arizona with 2 each; and California, New Mexico, Utah, and Nevada with 1 each.

The updated year-to-date comparison is as follows:

• Year-to-date through September 22nd, 44,011 wildfires have been reported and have burned 2,342,143 acres.
• During the same period last year, 51,437 wildfires were reported and had burned 6,834,496 acres.
• The 10-year average (2013–22) for the same period is 44,575 wildfires and 6,046,153 acres burned.